Udon Project member aims to reinvent fast food

San Francisco-based food system activist David Gumbiner is one of three locals in The Udon Project, which is facing off against Detroit’s Beet Squad in Yoxi’s national video challenge to “Reinvent Fast Food.” To see their Pad Thai Project video and cast your vote, visit www.yoxi.tv/submission/14.

How are you reinventing fast food? We’ve created a really interesting model that revolves around pad thai in a portable form. Our first thought was to look outside the standard burger-fries model and find foods that are already being made quickly and cheaply around the world; Pad Thai is a street food in Thailand, but here it’s stuck in restaurants.

Who are you targeting? A lot of people go to fast food only sometimes, but the real problem is the people who go to fast food because it’s their only option financially or time-wise. We want to affect those consumers because our country is facing incredible health issues directly related to diet.

What makes pad thai a healthy alternative? Burgers and fries have lots of saturated fat and the ingredients list is 30 to 40 items long. Pad Thai has almost no saturated fat, and you can include veggies and healthier protein. Our pad thai is also gluten-free.

How are you presenting your pad thai? Our goal is to have a drive-thru so people can grab and go.